NOTE: Had a creative itch... but couldn't get anything down for my novel I am working on... so I launched LOG2... played a little, inspired me to come back here and begin writing this... I realized, looking at my oldest save game, that LOG2 has been out for three years and I've still not finished the game... But in the meantime, a new segment! In this one, I took the lore of the Lindworm (from the actual base of the lore) - and applied it to the Legend of Grimrock story, with my own twist... Hope you enjoy!
Tawmis placed his hands on his knees and buckled over, retching. The jaunt through the teleporter had made him feel as if each of those six stops was done at neck breaking speeds. After being certain there wasn’t anything else in his stomach to violently dispatch, he tried to stand tall, his head swaying like wheat blowing in a gentle breeze, and forced a smile. “It’s totally safe,” he gurgled before something else decided to find its way out of his stomach.
After the others had passed through the jaunting teleporter, Tawmis looked over at Coy. “You mentioned that we need to get to the castle on this island. How is that going to help us get off the island?”
“The Master of the Island has a large mirror there,” Coy explained. “With it, he can think of any place, and travel through the mirror to that location. It’s going to be the best way off of this cursed island.”
“Well, I don’t think this ‘Master’ you keep talking about is just going to let us use this magical mirror of his,” Tawmis muttered, “as I am pretty sure he’s the one who wrecked the slaver ship on his island in the first place, and turned Captain Bairon to stone using one of his Medusa… So does this ‘Master’ have a name?”
“We’ve always known him as the Master – but he is not alone. He has a brother – known as the Lindworm,” Coy shrugged. “As it turns out, this place wasn’t always… evil. He’s been driven mad by the curse, brought on by the greed of his mother, the once and former Queen of Nex and it’s his madness,” Coy gestured around him, “that’s also changed the island…”
“What curse do you –tic!- speak of?” Blaz’tik asked, curious if it involved magic.
“The story goes, over one hundred years ago, the King and Queen of Nex longed for a child. But despite their efforts, the Queen seemed to be barren. One day, the Queen had walked out into her garden and encountered a sorceress there, who said she had heard of the Queen’s woes and had come to help her. She pulled a ‘seed’ from her pouch that was as large as a young infant, and told the Queen to plant the seed and water it for two days. On the third day, two flowers would spring; a red and a white flower. The Queen must eat one of the flowers – red, and she would bare a son; white, she would bare a princess. But – she was not to eat both. Doing so would have dire consequences,” Coy began explaining, as sat down, to try and recall the story as he had heard it, passed down through generations of Ratlings bound to the Isle of Nex.
“Well,” he heaved a deep sigh, “I suppose you can guess what happened next. The Queen, buried the large seed, watered it and spoke to it affectionately for two days, and as the sorceress had promised, on the third day, two roses sprung from the seed; a white and red flower. The Queen was desperate. She wanted to give her loving husband, the King, an heir to the throne. But, she was fearful that this would be the only way to have a child, and she had wanted a young daughter of her own, to raise, and share those things that were hers, to pass down. It wasn’t fair, the Queen had told herself that only my husband should have an heir to pass down his things. So the Queen devoured both flowers. Several months later, she was pregnant. The King was unaware of the dealings that the Queen had made he only knew that at long last, the curse of her barren womb was finally at an end. However, in the delivery room – something tragic happened, as the sorceress had predicted. Slithering from the Queen’s womb came a Lindworm – a young dragon.”
“You mean to tell me you expect me to believe that a young dragon came out of a mother’s womb and she survived the experience?” Tawmis asked in disbelief.
“You once had your mind, literally, and magically, ripped open by The Mages of Des, and you survived the experience,” Taren reminded him.
“Yeah, but that’s different… they used magic to keep me alive through that whole process,” Tawmis muttered.
“And it was magic,” Coy added, “that kept the Queen alive; for she was to survive and see the curse of her greed and what it would bring down upon her family. The Lindworm slithered away, no bigger than a serpent, uncared for and unloved. But after the serpent’s birth, came a normal son – the one, we all know as The Master.”
“The Lindworm was not seen again, for eighteen years,” Coy continued the story, “until it came to find the Master a young princess to marry, and be his future Queen. The Master rode out to seek a woman, but the Lindworm appeared and demanded that the princess be his, as he is he elder brother. The Queen, broken, explained what had happened to the King. And so the first princess found, was given to the Lindworm who devoured her. So the Master rode out again, seeking another princess – but the Lindworm appeared again, and demanded the princess be his – and again, it devoured her. This happened until there were no more suitable princesses on the Isle of Nex, and the King was forced to seek out a young princess for his son, beyond the Isle of Nex – but the Lindworm had grown strong and powerful – and gained wings. It would destroy approaching ships with a suitable princess, and keep the princess – and devour her. Soon, none wanted anything to do with the Isle of Nex. The King and Queen died – but not before seeing the people of their kingdom become the food for the Lindworm, with no way to escape the Isle – and the lands fell to ruin and darkness. When the King and Queen died, the Lindworm returned to the castle – and it whispered things to the Master… the two became bonded, and the Isle fell into its greatest darkness. The Master was said to be one of the most beautiful humans in all of the world – and the Lindworm wanted his beauty. So the Lindworm used its own magic to twist the Master, and make him forgo everything in hopes of finding a way to restore the Lindworm into a human form. Now the Master has created these magic traps and teleporters and the like – all in the hopes of restoring his elder brother… so we must be weary… for the Master is a trickster… and what looks one way, may not be what it truly is.”
There was a long pause, before it was Tawmis who broke the silence. “So what you’re telling me is… not only do we have to deal with a crazy, magic wielding ‘Master’… but his older brother who is a dragon of some kind?”
“A Lindworm,” Coy corrected, “but yes. Essentially.”
“Wonderful,” Tawmis muttered.
Elsewhere on the island…
“The air down here is rancid,” Sir Karin choked. A thick, green, hazy, mist, full of pollen that was impossible not to breathe, inhale, and attached to the inside of their mouths and throats, that caused the very liquid from inside them, to seemingly dry upon contact.
“It’s Herdlings,” Jorale said, being familiar with Herdlings. They were often killed and dissected to be used for various potions – and more often than not – poisonous components. “There must be a den of them somewhere around here.”
“What are Herdlings?” Alissa asked, though a strong woman in her own right; she, as the Daughter to the king of the Malanian Empire, was not allowed to explore beyond the castle walls of her home, until she had used guilt to force her father to learn magic – but that voyage had been cut short when she and Sir Karin were abducted by the Serpents of Harbardar, then dragged onto the Elfin Wind slaver ship, that had now crashed on the Isle of Nex.
“Herdlings,” Jorale she began, then paused. “Imagine, if you will, if fungus and mushrooms had gained sentient life, and could walk around and act like you and I – except, they’re brainless. They’re still plants… but they’re aggressive. Larger ones are called Herders. And if there’s a Herder-Spore present, then… we’re going to run into a lot of them.”
Stonebreaker smiled, “You said they’re aggressive?”
“Very,” Jorale nodded. “And because they’re absolutely brainless, they keep attacking in waves, and never run. It’s do or die, every time with them.”
“I almost admire them,” Stonebreaker chuckled, then coughed as he inhaled some of the pollen. “If it wasn’t for the fact that they make it difficult for me to breathe.”
“What’s with the fences and everything around here?” Sir Karin asked. “If they’re so mindless… it doesn’t seem like they would be the ones that built this?”
“Depends on what you believe,” Jorale explained. “There’s a lot of different stories about the Isle of Nex. They say, once long ago, this was a prosperous kingdom – and the Queen, in a moment of greed, cursed herself, her land and her kingdom. By the looks of it – this area was probably the stables near the garden. The cursed garden probably spawned the Herdlings – and the Herdlings, without anyone to bother them – have spread their spores and taken it over.”
“This pollen that we’re breathing is safe, yes?” Sir Karin asked.
“What do you mean?” Jorale asked, turning to the Knight of Malanian Empire.
“I mean, inhaling it – we’re not going to turn into mindless plants, controlled by the Herdlings?” Sir Karin asked.
Jorale raised an eye brow. “I … had not considered that… all the Herdlings and Herders I always dealt with were dead… and come to think of it, those that hunted Herdlings and Herders for their… internal value… always came back with fewer people than they left with…”
Sometimes a story just grabs and won't let go and this is the case.
